Cherry Blossom (Vampire Cherry Book 2)

by Sotia Lazu

  “Because there would be chaos, if the whole town knew undead monsters walked among them? Why do you think?”

  I wanted to return her snappishness, but reminded myself it wasn’t Sheena I wanted to kill. Slowly, as if talking to a child, I said, “No, I mean why does he leave them alive, and not bother to alter their memories? That’s not his usual MO.”

  “Maybe he wants to cause chaos? How should I know how a psycho vampire thinks? Just, please stay safe.”

  “I will.” I was about to hang up the phone, when another question popped up. “Sheena, how do they know it’s him?”

  She snorted. “He’s the only vampire unaccounted for in the census, and the description matches his.”

  “Is tall, dark, and handsome all they’ve got? What about his clothes? The color of his eyes, maybe?”

  “I have to check up on that, but I think Wesley said he looks casual and inconspicuous. Nothing that sticks out too much. I’ll get back to you on the clothes—and I doubt anyone got close enough to see his eyes, Cherry.”

  My fingers went numb, and I almost dropped the phone. Casual was not a word that would ever describe my maker. It did, however, fit another tall, dark, and handsome unregistered vampire. “No need.” I tried to sound calm, but my voice shook. “Won’t make a difference anyway. We know whom to look for.”

  But did we?

  “Call me if there’s any development,” Sheena said. “And tell Constantine to check in more often. Mini-yous are having withdrawals, and it’s like PMSing to the power of bitch.”

  I laughed, but my heart wasn’t into it. “I’ll tell him. Talk soon, babe.”

  “And call me if you manage that threesome.”

  This time my laugh was a little more real. I hung up and turned around.

  Constantine leaned against the wall. Vampires can be stealthy, but it still amazed me how a man his size could move around so quietly. He was close enough to touch, and I just bet he’d heard Sheena’s naughty parting words.

  Fuck.

  Or not, if I didn’t want Alex to kill us both.

  The thought sobered me. Alex and killing was nothing to joke about. Not if my train of thought wasn’t widely derailed.

  “I need to talk to you,” I said to Constantine in a hushed tone. “But not here.”

  “Are you going to try and lure me into the threesome your friend mentioned?” His voice was as quiet as mine. “You know I won’t need much convincing, but I’m rather certain your boyfriend will be less open-minded.”

  So he wasn’t going to let that drop. Eh, I was still free to bypass it. “Something is seriously wrong. Maybe we can find some way to sneak away for a few, later? I don’t want Alex to hear.”

  He shrugged. “Then speak freely. His mother called, and he stepped outside to take it.”

  I inhaled deeply—I may not need air to survive, but I need it to speak, and I had to get the words out fast. Before love and loyalty stifled them, and risked everything and everyone around me. “I think it’s Alex. I think he’s the one attacking women.”

  Constantine arched an eyebrow. “Your gallant knight? What makes you say that?”

  “I don’t have specific proof. Just a gut feeling. He’s been acting weird. Hiding things, bringing up obstacles to finding Willoughby... Remember he was the first to say we shouldn’t go see Willoughby’s victim at the hospital? Maybe he was afraid she’d recognize him. And according to Sheena, Wesley spoke to someone who said Willoughby has attacked two more redheads in the area. Only he doesn’t wipe their memories. The locals do.”

  And who were the local vampires in San Luis Obispo? How come I hadn’t noticed any nocturnal neighbors when I still lived here?

  Then again, I hadn’t noticed my grandmother was a vampire—or that she was even my grandmother.

  “Willoughby must have a reason for doing that. To create panic, possibly, or draw out the local undead population for whatever purpose. What does that have to do with Alex?”

  “Your spies only think the vampire doing it is Willoughby because of his physical description, and ’cause he’s the only one whose whereabouts aren’t recorded in the census.”

  “So…?”

  “They said he’s—as Sheena put it—casual and inconspicuous.”

  “That would be out of character for Willoughby. He is a pretentious prick, after all.” The words were ironic, coming from someone who lived in a mansion, but at least Constantine deigned to wear jeans and a T most days.

  “Also, kind of important, Alex isn’t even in the census,” I said, pulling my thoughts away from Constantine’s stylistic choices.

  Constantine pursed his lips. “What you’re suggesting is highly improbable. We—You’ve been with the man near constantly.”

  “Except for when he sleepwalked. What if he’s done it before?”

  “He hasn’t back home. He’d have burned to a crisp. Even if he’d found a way around that before the potion, there are alarm systems in place at the mansion. He couldn’t have wandered off.”

  “Plus we’d have heard about more attacks,” I muttered. “It doesn’t make sense. Why here? What triggered his sleepwalking?”

  “It could still be a stand-alone event, Cherry.” Constantine gave me a smile that would have been reassuring if I didn’t know him enough to make out the doubt in his eyes. “He could have dreamed of something that made him walk to the woods.”

  I huffed and blew my bangs out of my face. “It’s more than that. I know it. Something has gotten to him.” Could be the same something that had toned down Constantine’s sarcasm since we got to my hometown. My family? The sense of belonging…or not?

  “If that’s the case, what has changed in his circumstances? Think, Cherry.”

  “If it’s not late-onset fear of commitment, it could be Ruby’s potion. He could be allergic, or something.” Fuck, I really didn’t want the potion to be at fault. I wanted us to keep taking it.

  “I somehow doubt it’s either.” Constantine inched closer to me, and traced his thumb along the wall, right by my shoulder. I sensed his need to touch me, but couldn’t allow myself the comfort of his touch.

  I took a step back. “Whatever it is, we have to watch him. Constantly. I think whatever he’s dreaming of is making him dangerous. Maybe it’s just that he won’t drink blood. Maybe his subconscious craves it, and he goes after humans in his sleep.”

  He dropped his hand and nodded.

  “Honey?” Mom’s voice came from the kitchen. “Will you get the boys and come back to the table? It’s dessert time.”

  “Sure, Mom,” I called back. To Constantine I said, “At least there have been no fatalities, right?”

  “Right.” There was sorrow in Constantine’s gaze. The kind I’d expect to accompany really bad news. I was grateful when he said nothing else.

  I exited the house from the back door and rounded the side toward the front porch. Alex wasn’t there. I backtracked and checked the other side. Nothing. He wasn’t in the shed either.

  I could feel panic rising inside me with every minute that passed. “Alex? Where are you?” I called out. Constantine came up behind me. “Can you try his cell phone?” I asked.

  “Already on it.” He brought the phone to his ear, but a moment later shook his head. “Straight to voicemail.”

  “Shit. What if he heard us? He must be devastated, thinking he might be the one who hurt those women.” I started to take off, but Constantine was next to me in a flash.

  He grabbed my forearm and held me in place. “Cherry, there’s one possibility we haven’t considered.”

  “What?” I was barely listening, needing to go after Alex immediately, before he did something stupid, or Willoughby found him and decided to finish what he’d started.

  Constantine shook me lightly, until I met his gaze. “His actions may not have been subconscious,” he said.

  “What are you talking about?” I didn’t know my voice could be pitched so high. Why was he stalling me? I’d lost
Alex before, when my maker had bled him to the brink of death and left him for me to find. I couldn’t let it happen again.

  “Cherry, there’s a chance Alex didn’t run because he found out what he’s been doing, but because we did!”

  At first, I couldn’t wrap my mind around the meaning of Constantine’s words. Then it slowly sank in. “You think he’s been hunting and keeping it from us on purpose? No! You didn’t see him in the woods. I did.” And I’d seen him smile when he’d said I loved him. I hadn’t liked that smile.

  “This does not mean there isn’t more you don’t know. Have you wondered why Willoughby bothered following us here, instead of making a move while we were all tucked away in the mansion?”

  “I… No.”

  “I have. And why did Alex insist to meet your folks, when he hasn’t spent one minute since we arrived trying to get to know them?”

  “He talked to my mom. We’ve all been busy. What are you getting at?” I tapped my foot impatiently.

  “Maybe he’s aware of his actions. I’m not suggesting he’s gone rogue. Perhaps Willoughby has gotten to him somehow. I don’t know… I just want you to be caref—”

  “No!” I shook off his hold and narrowed my eyes. Fear sliced through me, at the thought he might be right. Alex might be hurting people consciously. Wanting to hurt me.

  I don’t like being afraid. I hate the helpless feeling that comes with it. The unease in my stomach. The uncertainty. The despair. So I did what I do best with emotions that make me uncomfortable, and funneled it into anger. “I knew you weren’t as cool with Alex as you pretended to be, but this is really low. Pretending to worry about me? Saying maybe he’s working with Willoughby?”

  “Not because he wants to. There have been stories in the past of vampires messing with other vampires’ minds. And you should be careful around him. It can’t be a coincidence that he targets women who look like you.” He reached for me again, but I pushed him back.

  “Maybe he thinks he’s feeding on me when he attacks them, because he always feeds on me.” I refused to believe Alex would do these things consciously, or that he’d be a danger to me.

  But he’d lied about the dream.

  And he’d been weird.

  “Or maybe there’s another reason,” Constantine said, and I was furious at him again, for making me doubt Alex’s sincerity. Alex’s love for me.

  “Right,” I said. “He subconsciously wants to drain me, while you only want what’s best for me. Is that it?”

  “Cherry, I’m only trying to protect you.”

  “Weird, ’cause I remember feeling pretty fucking devastated, when I caught you screwing someone else. The same someone who had me killed. Maybe you could have tried to protect me then.”

  Shock and hurt contorted his beautiful face, and a numbing cold spread inside my chest, but I didn’t stick around to hear what he said next.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Alex wasn’t in the woods. I know, because I spent five hours looking for him there. I flew over it and I hurtled through it, and I almost got shot when I scared one of San Luis’s finest, patrolling the area in the middle of the night. I didn’t have the time to play scared tourist lost, so I compelled him just enough to make him look the other way, while I fled toward the town center.

  I revisited every place we’d checked for Willoughby, and even went by the hospital, where I was told my sort-of-lookalike had been released.

  Asking about a patient whose name you don’t know has to be hard when you’re not a vampire. All I did was use my vampire gaze to get one of the nurses on shift to tell me about the redhead they’d found near the creek, before I deleted all signs of me from her memory.

  A bit after six in the morning, I returned to the house, to see if Constantine had had any luck.

  I ran into my mom at the door. Shit! Last she’d heard from me, I was joining her and dad for dessert.

  “Mom! I’m so sorry about last night. We—”

  “Don’t worry, hon. Constantine explained someone called about…that man”—she spat the words out—“and you went to investigate.”

  She waved one hand dismissively, and I finally realized she really had no idea about the sort of monster Willoughby was. She might have seen her mother nearly killed by a vampire, but she expected Alex, Constantine, and me to defeat Willoughby. For her it was just a matter of time.

  I also realized Constantine didn’t want to worry her with Alex’s disappearance. I’d follow his example.

  “Did you find anything?” Mom asked.

  I shook my head. “I was hoping Constantine may have heard something more, since…since Alex and I went looking.”

  “He left shortly after you did. Said he would check out the local nightclubs.” She gave me a cheeky grin. “I’m not sure if he’s looking for Willoughby or a good time.”

  So Constantine had stuck with his insane theory. While I’d been looking for a guilt-ridden Alex, my ex had been searching for a hunting one.

  I forced my lips to mirror Mom’s expression, while inside I seethed with anger. If I were human, my temples would be throbbing. I wanted to bust Constantine’s stubborn head as much as I wanted to bust Alex’s inconsiderate one. Maybe I should smash them together. Then they’d both stop messing with my peace of mind.

  “You may be right,” I said. “I’ll rest a little before going back out. What are you up to, so early in the morning?”

  She reached for a woven bag she’d left at the doorstep, and held out a pair of pruning scissors. “I promised Ms. Wilkins to help her with her gardening. She was so kind, when you…when we thought you weren’t coming back, and I like helping her. If you need company, I can call her—”

  “No.” I shook my head. “Go. I’ll probably sleep for an hour and then meet up with the guys.”

  “If you’re sure.” She kissed my forehead.

  “I am.” It’d be easier for me to scurry around, if I didn’t have to hide my panic. I watched her head out, wondering what she’d tell Ms. Wilkins about my return.

  I’d find out soon enough. Now I needed to feed, and possibly sleep for an hour or so. No longer than that. I couldn’t let more time pass by than absolutely necessary.

  Constantine returned alone too. He avoided my gaze. I didn’t speak to him. It was two hours after dawn, and I was wild with fear.

  Alex could be anywhere!

  With every minute that ticked by, I forgot I’d ever been upset with him. Worry gnawed at my unbeating heart. Last time I waited for him for hours, it was because he was dying.

  No. This time was different. He was somewhere moping, but reason would overcome his horror of what he might have done, and he’d be back soon. When there was no sign of him by half past ten, I went looking again. I couldn’t fly this time, because my vision was blurry with tears. I wouldn’t be able to handle it, if something else happened to Alex only because he had the misfortune of knowing me.

  I stayed out until the heat became near-unbearable. Only it wasn’t in an oh-God-I’m-burning way. More like I needed a cold drink and a thick layer of sunscreen. Even so, it was too much after I’d spent years in the night.

  I went home for a shower and another hit of blood with Ruby’s brew, and was about to brave the bright outdoors again, when Alex sauntered into the living room.

  “Isn’t the sun amazing?” he asked. “Hadn’t realized how much I’d missed it.” He wore his best boyish grin, but his eyes held a near-wolfish glint.

  I threw myself in his arms. “You’re okay. God, you don’t know how worried I was!”

  He pulled back. “Why?” He seemed genuinely confused.

  I smacked his shoulder, possibly a tad harder than would be playful. “You left without a word and stayed out all night. And then this morning… You could have burned to ash!”

  He circled my waist with one arm, and nipped at my throat. “I was careful. And I’m perfectly fine, as you can see.”

  He raised his head and smiled as I looked up. H
e was more than fine. He was glowing with health, and looked better than ever. I sniffed the air around him, and had to cover a shocked gasp with my hand, when the familiar sweet and coppery scent hit my nostrils.

  “You fed.” I tried to keep my voice emotionless. Really, I did.

  He pinned me with his sharp gaze, his grey eyes holding none of their usual softness. “Is that a problem? I thought you wanted me to.”

  I did, but in a controlled environment. Preferably controlled by me. “I did. I do. But you were completely against it. What changed your mind?”

  He gave me a one-shouldered shrug, and grazed the top of my breasts with the fingertips of his free hand. “Not sure. I felt like trying something different. Maybe you’re right. Maybe I should embrace my new lease on life, and not try to hang on to the human I used to be.”

  I shivered. That didn’t sound half as cool as it had when I’d suggested it.

  “Maybe I should become more like Cee,” Alex said, between kissing my neck and nuzzling my hair. “He seems to have a good grasp on things.”

  “What did you do?” I tried to step back and look him in the eye, but he tightened his hold and swayed us from side to side. “He seems to still have a good grasp on you, too.” His words made a mockery of the lovers’ dance he was leading our feet on.

  I pushed at his chest hard enough to get free. “What did you do?” I repeated.

  “Went for a walk and had a bite. What’s gotten you all riled up?”

  I searched his eyes, hoping to find them blurry. It’d all be better if he was in some kind of trance. They were clear, but shone feverishly.

  “Who did you feed on?” I asked. “Were they on drugs?”

  He smacked his lips. “I sincerely doubt it. She looked clean cut. A good girl, all in all.”

  She. My gut clenched. “Where is she now?”

  “Left her where I found her.” He arched a dark eyebrow. “Breathing, before you ask.”

  “Did you wipe her memory?”

  “No, but she never saw my face, and I doubt anyone will believe her, if she starts talking about vampires.”

  I winced, both at his callous indifference, and at the thought of what I should ask next. “Alex, was she a redhead?”